Brassiere



W. KURLAND BRASSIERE Feb. 12, 1952 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 Filed Aug. 15, 1950 INVENTOR William Kurlond ATTORNEY W. KURLAND Feb; 12, 1952 BRASSIERE 2 SHEET$-SHEET 2 Filed Aug. 15, 1950 INVENTOR William Kurlond ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 12, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE William Kurland, Great Neck-,N. 1. Application August 15, 1950', Serial'N'o'. 179,430

6"Cl'aims. 1

This. invention: relates. to. Womens brassires and more particularly,. it relates to. brassieres which areso constructed that-theprovide a. more graceful and positive uplift for the feminine form without. binding and withoutcurling or buckling of reinforcing strips;

There have been numerous brassieres which have been developed in an attempt to. provide an uplift effect for the breasts" without discomfort tothe wearer. These brassieres depend on bones or artificialstays, elastic bands gripping thetorso in a horizontal fashion, or some such, to'give'the'necessary uplift effect. In general, they might be characterized-as being exceedingly uncomfortable to'the' wearer, particularly in the shoulder straps, although tolerated as anecessary concomitant to the fashion demands of the day. In general, they provide a partial uplift which is not at all satisfactory.

This invention has as its objectto providea means for supporting. the breasts with both avertical and atransverse pull of the shoulder straps and thus: rovide anincreased: and more-positive lifting effect. Itxis an objectof this invention to provide a brassiere in which buckling and rolling of the reinforcing:-bandsrorstripsi is prevented; And-asyet another object, thisainven tion desires to provide a: brassierein which the: tendency of the" shoulder straps toslideoff the shoulders of the wearer. is lessened: Other'objectswill be apparent in. the latter portions of this specification.

This invention attains these objects bypro-- viding a brassiere in which there islongitudinally flexible. reinforcing bands attached to the lower portion of eachv of the. breastsu-pporting cups. The band fromeachcupt is attached in the center of the garment to. each other: at a predetermined angle so that. the bottom portion of the brassiere. resembles aninverted, V when worn. Thus the strainoneach shoulderstrap is not only vertical, asis the-usual; caserbut is also in a slanted. direction. from the opposite side; Each breastispartially supported by each shoulder strap. The band is sewed along the bottom of the cup and meetstherbandufrom the other cup in the center. of i the garment. In order. to maintain the angle atltheir juncturein a relatively fixed position, a rigid non-flexible piece. of fabric is. inserted. at the. juncturevand the bands are sewed' toi this. piece. 'Ihetransr v'ersei force pulling each band upwardly and across the body results in a'very. firm uplift, It has been found that if the. bands meet each other at an angle of substantially 1125, avery comfortable uplift" is provided A; further feature. of; this inventionv comprises the; manner of construction of the 1 elastic: rein=- forcing hands. This elastic band has an inner strip or core of elastic which is covered by a sheath of stretchable elastic covering so that it covers the core, both in front andone in; back. The material of inner" elastic. strip hasgreater stretchability than the external elastic-covering. sheath. By controlling the difierential of relative stretchbetweenthe internal-and external layers the over-all. stretchability of" the bands can be" controlled. The internal elastic. material. may be easily changed or. replaced in manuface. ture. so as. to give. the; exactv amount of. tension necessary to alleviate binding and undue strain against the body, and different. models may be offered-to the public with no increase in manufacturingpatterns or. forms. The change inthe garment is one which is internal and unobserv able on the surface.

To further. maintain a sub-control of. the stretch, V-shapedi stitchingv is applied to the reinforcing bands. It. can be seen that thereis a a considerable. strain placed on the reinforcing bands because they have a transverse force placed' on them pulling them upwardly and acrossthe body-of the wearer. This increased strain increases the tendency of the reinforcing bands to" buckle. To prevent this, this invention proposes to-apply stitching as a flexible shirring in aseriesof continuous V's to the reinforcing bands; The V runs from thetop-to the bottom: across the reinforcing bands-with the angle of the V controlled-so that it is substantially iden=- tical to the V formed both by the reinforcing bands and the tops of the cups. B'y thus using the same angles throughout, the forces are' coordinated" and a non-buckling smooth reinforcing band is produced. Theamount'of stretch possible; in any'loca'lized region, namely between theitworlegs of the: V, islimi'ted andflocalized; so; that iticannotextendbeyond the'row ofstitches; Thusswhile-thezstretch is generally linear inthe direction. of the shoulder strap, the. over-all stretch; is; broken down into segments eachof which; is controlled as to maximum extension. The band follows the. naturallines of a womansbody without. creating an. excess. of tension so that theagarment fitsand conformsuin a natural manner...

A still further feature of. this invention is found intheconstruction of the-breast supporte ing and containing cups; These cups are subject tow a. certain amount of. distortion-- due, to the twisting. forces towhich they are subjected. A

slight. amount of wrinkling is caused andan. .un.-

desirable uneven contour results. To restore the smoothness which is desired, the cups are out along their upper edge so that a substantially straight line is formed from the reinforcing band of one side up along the upper edge of the opposite cup. This is done on both sides so that the upper edges of the cups form a v at their juncture which is substantially the same as that formed by the reinforcing band. The begins at one shoulder strap, goes across and down to the center of the brassire, and then upwardly along the upper edge of the other cup. This is a minor refinement which has proved to be a simple method of eliminating the aforementioned wrinkles.

Several additional pleasing features result from a brassiere constructed as described in this specification. Because of the upward direction across the body which the reinforcing bands assume, their uppermost ends pass around the curved portions of the body and thus part of their length is held away from contact with the skin. This results in increased comfort for the wearer.

Another useful effect of the transverse pull of the reinforcing bands is the effect which it has on the shoulder straps. They are pulled slightly toward the center of the garment and this strain serves to decrease their tendency to slip off the shoulders of the wearer. If the strain from one side of the body should suddenly decrease due to a rapid movement of the body, there is still some pull from the other side, so that no opportunity is provided to slip off during a slack moment.

- The following example shown in the figures of the accompanying drawings is given for illustrative purposes only and it is not deemed limiting as the scope of the invention is to be determined by the appended claims including such variations within the limits of the invention as would suggest themselves to one skilled in this art.

Figure 1 is a front view of the brassiere in the shape it assumes when being worn. Figure 2 is a back view of the brassire, showing the reverse construction of the garment. Figure 3 is a front view of the brassiere with the component parts shown in detail. Figure 4 is a section through 4-4, showing the construction of the reinforcing band in cross-section. Figure 5 is a cut away view of the reinforcing band showing the component parts and the stitching in detail. Figure 6 is a cross-section through 6-6 and shows the construction of the joint between the two reinforcing bands.

More particularly in the drawings, the brassiere is composed of upper cup sections II and i5, lower cup sections l2 and i6, supporting straps 22 and 23, and back sections 20 and 32. The cup sections are each formed in two pieces and stitched along lines I! and I8 in order to present a more curvaceous appearance in the garment. In order to provide a flat, body-clinging element, the two reinforcing bands I3 and M are provided. The reinforcing bands are formed from a strip of rubber 38, covered with a material l3 which is flexible along its longitudinal length only. The upper portion is covered with a thin strip of non-flexible material 29 in order to give it rigidity, and to this the lace or net or fabric l2 which comprises the cup of the brassire is stitched. Stitching 39 and 40 holds this firmly in place, as shown in Figure 5.

The reinforcing strips l3 and I4 come toward the center of the brassiere in the shape of an inverted V and are joined at center portion 35.

4 The details of construction at this juncture are shown in Figure 6. The longitudinally elastic fabric l3, M, 35 and 31 are stitched to a member 35 of non-resilient material to form a firm junction and to hold the reinforcing strips l3 and I I fixedly at a predetermined angle. It has been found that a comfortable angle and one which will accomplish the objects of this invention is 112. If the reinforcing strips are joined at this or some other predetermined angle, then the upper cup sections I I and I5 are constructed so that their upper edges 26 and 2'! meet at their juncture at the center of the brassire to form an angle which is substantially the same as the angle between the reinforcing strips. Thus a substantially straight line strain is provided from the shoulder strap to the opposite bottom portion of the brassiere.

The reinforcing bands are stitched with serrated stitching IS in order to permit the bands to be stretched along their lateral or longitudinal length. This stitching is placed in a series of continuous inverted Vs as shown at 33 and 34. The angle between the Vs is controlled to be substantially the same as that between the reinforcing strips and between the upper cup sections.

What'I claim is:

1. A brassire comprising a pair of breastsupporting cups having substantially nonstretchable margins, each cup being formed with an upper substantially apex-shaped portion and also shaped with a lateral inwardly directed substantially pointed portion, both pointed portions being interconnected whereby both cups form with one another an upper upright V-shaped cutout and a corresponding lower inverted V-shaped cutout, a back section of substantially nonstretchable material for and stitched to the outer side of each cup and extending downwardly below the bottom margin of the associated cup to constitute a shoulder therewith, a reinforcement band of stretchable material extending inwardly from each shoulder and joined along its length to the lower margin of the associated cup as well as joined to the associated shoulder and having its bottom edge substantially aligned with the bottom edge of the associated back section, means interconnecting inner ends of said reinforcement bands at the vertex of the lower inverted V- shaped cutout, and a shoulder strap extending from the apex of each cup to the corresponding back section.

2. A brassiere according to claim 1, in which said interconnecting means constitute a member of non-stretchable material.

3. A brassire according to claim 1, in which said reinforcing bands comprise an outer stretchable sheath and an inner elastic strip having a stretchability greater than that of the sheath, the degree of stretchability of the strip being optional so that the net stretchability of the garment is variable without change of its external shape.

4. A brassiere according to claim 1, in which said reinforcing bands comprise an outer stretchable sheath and an inner elastic strip having a stretchability greater than that of the sheath, the degree of stretchability of the strip being optional so that the net stretchability of the garment is variable without change of its external shape, with the addition that the stretchable sheath is joined to the elastic strip by a series of V-shaped flexible stitching defining subsegments of stretch within the bands.

5. A brassiere according to claim 1, with the addition of flexible stitching along the reinforcing bands in a series of V-shapes, the angle of these V-shapes being substantially the same as the angle of the v-shape formed by and between the reinforcing bands.

6. In a brassiere comprising the combination which comprises a pair of breast-supporting cup sections having substantially non-stretchable margins, each cup section being formed with an upper substantially apex-shaped portion and also shaped with a lateral inwardly directed substantially pointed portion, both pointed portions being interconnected whereby both cups form with one another an upper upright V-shaped cutout and a corresponding lower inverted V-shaped cutout, a back section of substantially nonstretchable material extending from the outer side of each cup and also extending downwardly below the bottom margin of the associated cup to form a shoulder therewith whereby said shoulders form with the lower edges of the cup sections a V-shaped recess, and a V-shaped insert of substantially stretchable material for said recess and joined edgewise to the edges of the recess and having a vertex portion of non-stretchable material.

WILLIAM KURLAND.

REFERENCES CITED 10 The following references are of record in the file of this patent: Y UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 15 2,134,294 Yerkes -i Oct. 25, 1938 2,202,058 Malnick May 28, 1940 2,526,316 Amyot Oct. 17, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 20 Number Country Date 443,62; Great Britain Mar. 3, 1936 

